Explay Informer 703: the bar below

Tablets, and other products Explay always attracted buyers rather “tasty” price: not too high because of “brand” and quite appropriate quality of the offered gadgets. This time the company decided to jump over (or in this case more appropriate to write “below”?) the level of achievements and launched into the tablet PC market with extremely low cost. Not to mention that the predecessors — Informer Informer 701 and 702 — are a little more, but the money invested in them themselves fully

justified. Will the novelty keep this trend? Let’s try to understand together.

Equipment

Explay Informer 703 in factory box

Traditionally, the Sony device is supplied in a sturdy white cardboard box with quality printing. Its front side depicts the front panel of the tablet and lists its main technical characteristics. The back side of the box is decorated with much more modest: it is “black and white” detail lists all the parameters that can be interesting to potential buyers.

KomplektatsiyaExplay Informer 703

Despite the low cost of the device, the company Explay has not changed your signature and left the package of the supplied gadget to the maximum. Carefully laid in a box:

soft case;

Mini USB cable → USB;

Mini USB cable → USB (OTG);

charger;

in-ear headphones iRiver;

warranty card and quick documentation.

This package allows you to get the newly purchased device out of the box and immediately start using it. Provide case, of course, unpretentious, but it protects the gadget from damage during transportation. Earbuds sound like cheap counterparts, but fans of accurate sound transmission already have some Sennheiser or AKG, right? And the rest for watching movies is enough and those that are included.

Appearance

The front panel, Explay Informer 703

Externally, the tablet looks like a predecessor, Explay Informer 701: the same form and similar dimensions. This can be considered a small step back, Informer 702 looks a lot more attractive. Front panel as the 701 model, completely covered by a monolithic protective glass, which, in turn, closed by thick and strong protective film. If you want the matte display, the tape can not be peeled off. Also, the film suffers a little less from fingerprints, although somewhat distorts the colors. Around the screen are a pretty big frame on the left side which is eye 0.3 MP webcam.

The side faces Explay Informer 703

All the available connectors and interfaces are concentrated on the left side of the device. Here withdrawn microphone, standard 3.5 mm audio Jack, a slot for memory cards microSD and miniUSB interface. Slightly removed from the group the reset button (reset). The right side of the tablet is empty.

The top and bottom faces Explay Informer 703

In the left part of the upper face of the gadget is the power button/lock of the device. In the right part are keys of reduction and increase the volume as well as the Home button, which is the fourth version of the Android operating system does not provide. Do not worry: more — no less will not be superfluous. But on the lower end of the device there is absolutely nothing.

Rear panel, Explay Informer 703

The rear panel of the device matte, but not very hard plastic, thereby easily scratched. Thanks to the smooth surface and the device feels good in the hands. In the center of the panel is the Sony logo and the certification marks. The left side is the slot a small mono speaker.

To the Assembly of the tablet we have no complaints: nothing anywhere else is not loose and does not creak even when pressure is applied to the device. The only significant drawback of appearance can be considered as thickness — 12 millimeters — although beyond the scope of a valid indicator is not crossing. The tablet can be hold in one hand because it has light weight — 335 grams. From all the above we can conclude that the device with the appearance and ergonomics, everything is in order.

Specifications

Explay Informer 703

Processor

BoxChip A13 @ 1.0 GHz (ARM Cortex A8/Mali 400)

Screen

7 inch, 800×480, capacitive touch screen, TFT TN

RAM

512 MB DDR2

Built-in disk

4 GB Flash

Connector flash cards

MicroSD (up to 16GB)

Ports

1 x miniUSB 1 x microSD 1 x audio output mini-jack 3.5 mm

Bluetooth

Missing

Wi-Fi

IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Sensors

Accelerometer

Camera

Front: 0.3 MP (no autofocus)

Food

Li-polymer battery (3000 mAh) Working time up to 8 hours

Size

168x120x11,9 mm

Weight

335 g

Operating system

Android 4.0.3

Official manufacturer’s guarantee

12 months

The average retail price, RUB.

3 490

System information Explay Informer 703

Display

A seven-inch screen has a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Accordingly, the pixel grain is not too large, but invisible and not call him. The screen is made by TFT technology TN — it is certainly not IPS, but for the money anything else is not worth to count. Application of the TN technology due to the inversion of colors at a deviation of the eye from the perpendicular: horizontal angles of the screen is decent, but the vertical is too small. However they are quite enough for comfortable work with your tablet. The device has an accelerometer, whereby the information on the screen is always located in accordance with the position of the gadget in space. Touch capacitive display layer, in most cases he correctly responds to touch, it supports up to five simultaneous keystrokes.

The results of the test AnTuTu MultiTouch Test

Due to the lack of appropriate sensor automatic adjustment comfortable level of brightness at Informer 703 missing. For manual control of illumination of a white field reached 19 CD/m2 — digestible value to operate the device in complete darkness; maximum 157 CD/m2 — but this figure is not very good. In the fine day or in bright artificial light the display will ruthlessly fade (anti-glare substrate, judging by the reflection in the screen bright light sources, it is not), because the stock brightness is too small. With moderate external light to use the device quite comfortably. The average value contrast ratio is 270:1. The color reproduction is somewhat lacking juiciness, it’s true — the scope of the palette of colors of the sRGB display is already noticeable and is 68,4% of it.

Performance

To assess the computational and graphical power of the tablet we used a set of benchmarks can be downloaded from the Google Play store (except for BrowserMark, the device which “decides” in the browser). The results obtained are listed in the table.

Discipline

Explay Informer 703

Quadrant scores

1682

AnTuTu Benchmark, scores

3138

Linpack Single Thread Mflops

13,766

Linpack Single / Multi Thread Mflops

14,18

Nenamark, FPS

57,1

Nenamark 2, FPS

24,5

Rightware BrowserMark, Stock, points

42435

Rightware BrowserMark, Chrome, scores

49572

Test results Quadrant

The results of the test AnTuTu Benchmark

Explay Informer 703 showed quite decent for the specifications results in synthetic tests AnTuTu and Quadrant Benchmark. For ultrabudgetary devices they can be classified as good. In daily operation, the device prizadumatsya a bit, but overall works quite quickly. Gadget copes with video playback of any resolution up to Full HD — thanks to hardware decoder. However, if a format decoder does not support, then with the video high resolution tablet would be hard. Complex web pages are scrolled not too smooth, but in other cases, the tablet will run smoothly and with minimal delays.

Test results Nenamark

Test results Nenamark 2

Of course, game happens only in a simple casual arcade two-dimensional and more or less older 3D games. About any fairly complex 3D games and speech can not go. In the graphics test Nenamark 2 gadget scored 24.5 FPS — that is something harder second on Nenamark Explay Informer 703 is better not to put. The first and more simple edition Nenamark tablet showed much more remarkable result: for 57.1 FPS. Therefore, for simple games it will be enough.

The battery life

The results of the test AnTuTu Battery Test

Explay Informer 703 contains a lithium-polymer battery 3000 mAh for a tablet not so much as I would like. The manufacturer claims that the device can work up to eight hours without recharging. But only at minimum brightness and at low load. In the case of continuous operation the novelty has discharged from 100% to 19% in a little less than two and a half hours (maximum screen brightness, wireless networks off). In profile the test AnTuTu tablet scored 421 points. On one level for comfortable illumination and subsequent mail checks battery will be enough, but then the device will require recharging.

Camera

As is usually the case with low-cost tablets, the manufacturer embeds only one camera — front, for web conferencing, and with a tiny matrichnoi — from 0.3 to 1.3 megapixels. Informer 703 received the first with VGA resolution. Of course, a lot of it should not wait, but for video calls in good light it is fine. If light is not enough, the picture will be covered with a noticeable layer of noise, and the conversation will be difficult to catch your gestures and facial expressions.

Software

Desk Explay Informer 703

Applications menu Explay Informer 703

New running the operating system Android version 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwitch, which comes in the unabridged version, “as is” without any proprietary add-ons. It is possible to note the presence touch keys reduce and increase the volume in the bottom panel, next to the button open applications — they are placed there very rarely (especially considering the hardware). Third-party software in the tablet two, both very useful: multifunction reader Cool Reader (the author is one of the best) and maps from “Yandex”.

Conclusion

The company Explay was controversial, but very interesting device. Why controversial? Because suitable it is not for everyone. The gadget is convenient to use at home, connecting it to the Wi-Fi network, for example to check messages on social networks, or on the go for watching movies and reading books. With such tasks it copes without problems, but nothing more to do with him will not be allowed. The disadvantages of the gadget is attributed not the highest quality display and newideas the battery life. The advantages also could be considered good for its class performance and overall reasonable arrangement of the housing. Those who are satisfied with this combination will be very happy to pay for the novelty but little money — a little more than $100.

Gradually tablet PCs become more affordable cell phones, and their market is more diverse. And it can not but rejoice: each buyer will be able to choose a gadget that meets his personal requirements and objectives. We are confident that Informer 703 will definitely occupy a niche in the market, and not too demanding users will be pleased with its appearance.

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1 thought on “Explay Informer 703: the bar below”

Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!